In the foyer were traces of ancient furniture and mirrors, reduced to piles of wood, dirt and dull glass with little luster. There wouldn’t be any magic in those piles, but gold or anything else of value might yield Trixie a spellbook or magic scrolls. It was worth a shot and Trixie was low on cash, anyway. At last her efforts were fruitless—save for nearly cutting herself on some ancient mirror—to little surprise to the young sorceress. She stood up and went through an old arch, finding herself in what looked like the kitchen.
There was nothing of use to her, coinciding with her expectations. A metal counter was still there rusted and weathered, but it could still be recognized a counter. There weren’t any ovens, though they would have stuck around like the counters.
The old residents must’ve just used magic to cook their food. But why doesn't anyone use magic to cook anymore? She stopped her exploring as she temporarily forgot her mission and examined the old kitchen. A pile of dirt and a few metal scraps were all that was left of what Trixie guessed was a larder, rotted wood and dirt sat on the metal and stone counter tops with fractured porcelain in the mix. Few materials existed which meant that the castle was old beyond her assumptions, and any traces of energy would be long gone by now. Whatever traces of magic that had persisted this long wouldn’t be of use, anyway. After all, Twilight wouldn’t yield to Trixie’s great and powerful pies in a duel. She left the kitchen and went back to the central foyer where she considered going upstairs. The only problem was that the stones built into the staircase were falling apart and dissolving.
Having her fill of the front room, she continued her walk into the next room, the clomping of her boots echoing against the stone walls now that she no longer felt the need to stay quiet: if there was anyone else in this castle, they would have shown themselves by now. This larger room with many old, broken windows lined the walls with their weathered and dull glass lying on the floor beneath, and two thrones made of stone and metal sat on the far end of the room. Trixie strode into the room and towards the thrones until she lost her focus on the room when she heard the clanging of metal below her. Looking down, she realized she was walking on a sheet of silver. Excitedly jumping off of it and picking it up, Trixie began thinking of the great prices she could get for this metal. Breaking her from her fantasies of wealth and a new cart was a strange glow coming from below: a sun heavily resembling Celestia’s cutie mark.
She tossed the silver aside and kneeled down to get a better look at the engraved sun. It felt to her like it was putting out some kind of warding magic, but Trixie couldn’t tell what exactly. It was definitely holding something, but there was nothing in this castle for it to hold, and it certainly wasn’t keeping anything intact. Still, something significant must have happened, and hopefully this ward was still very strong even though it seemed very weak; but it was also the first ancient magic she had found that might be of some use to her. There had to be more in this castle, and it was her mission to find them. But first, she would see how this ward was working. She cast a kind of exposure spell on the sun expecting it to show her what kind of magic was going on, but the sun disappeared and was replaced by a glowing blue septagram. Trixie jumped and backpedaled away from the strange star, keeping her eyes on the engraving and not where she was going.
She tripped and staggered backwards and bumped into a wall. A stone slab that she bumped into budged slightly, indenting into the wall. Trixie jumped away, expecting it to be some ancient trap. She turned around as fast as she could, readying her magic. In the dim blue glow of her fires, she scanned the area and relaxed when she found nothing was going to jump out to challenge her. Taking a deep breath and wiping the nervous sweat from her brow, she looked at the stone slab closely. It was part of some ancient trap door, but by now its hinges were rusted and broken leaving the stone free to break from the wall at the slightest whim. Pushing it with some effort, it tipped over and fell down a spiral staircase. Loud booms and bangs rang through the castle, and Trixie flinched when she heard the final crack at the bottom of the staircase.
Hesitating, she placed one foot in front of the other and slowly went down the black shaft. Candlesticks hung from the walls, which Trixie lit so she could relax her magic a little more and still be able to see.
What is this place? I should stay out, but whatever’s down there could be answered so easily just by looking...but what if there’s some necromancer down there looking for a new thrall? She quietly gasped at the thought of becoming some necromancer’s sex slave. Whatever, I can so take him...but what if he’s got a small army of thralls down there...oh right I have this charm. I’ll be fine. But I might not be...I’ll flip a coin...but I really wanna see...I’ll go. But it’s a bad idea...damn this...just a quick look then I’m out. She looked at the exit to the ground floor and back into the black shaft with her heart pounding in her ears before she continued.
Reaching the bottom, she saw that there was a large double door that the stone slab had broken and burst through. One of the door’s upper hinges were broken from the shock of the stone slab. She went through the doors and stepped over the slap, delving into the dark underbuilding. Trixie enhanced her flames so she could see better, and in the blue light, she looked around the room and saw some kind of sarcophagus was lying on the opposite side of the room. Between it and the door was a path outlined by candles.
Trixie halted before approaching the stone coffin. She knew she wouldn’t learn any magic by checking out whoever died here, but maybe he was buried with a lot of his valuables? Trixie proceeded and grabbed a hold of the stone lid and pushed. It took a lot of effort on her part, and she resorted to lifting it off with her magic, but eventually she opened the ancient stone casket. Inside lay a skeleton, his bones well preserved but everything else rotted away except for his tattered robe. He also wore a weird necklace that seemed to have a swirling cloud inside it. More than likely, it was probably a magical charm like the Alicorn Amulet in nature, but maybe not as powerful or dangerous.
That looks useful, she thought and it’s not like this guy’s gonna come back from the dead. It wasn’t that Trixie didn’t have a heart, it was just that whoever was buried here had been dead a really long time, plus it would be better for the pendant to be used rather than just sit in some old casket for the rest of eternity.
Reaching for the necklace, a glowing blue swirl emerged in each of the eye sockets of the skull, and they were staring right at Trixie. A skeletal hand grabbed Trixie’s wrist, but she lurched back in fear and escaped the skeleton’s grasp. All the candles in the room simultaneously ignited with yellow flames, illuminating the room as the skeleton sat up and made its way out of the coffin. It kept its “pupils” locked on Trixie as stood up and limped towards her. Sinew hung from its wrists and arms, and more seemed to show up, even patches of skin seemed to develop. Some tendons even began to materialize along its face.
Trixie stopped backing away when she bumped into the wall. At this point her lucidity came back and she readied her magical fire. The skeleton raised its hand in front of it, almost in a surrendering manner. To Trixie the skeleton was trying to do its own magic or fool her into thinking it was giving up, and the Great and Powerful Trixie was not about to be bested by a pile of bones. With a powerful blast of magic to the chest, the skeleton stumbled backwards and most of the blue energy flowed into him almost as if he was absorbing it. Trixie fired several more blasts, but the skeleton was able to shake them off fairly well.
The candle flames shifted from yellow to a bluish-green color and the skeleton stood upright for the first time. It lowered its gaze to Trixie’s chest, namely her charm—which apparently had stopped working—and she took the opportunity to punch the skeleton’s breastbone as hard as she could, knocking the creature onto the floor. Trixie approached her opponent and readied her boot to stomp the skeleton’s skull into dust, but it protectively threw its arms up and rolled out of the way too quickly. Trixie’s boot followed its target well, but the skeleton managed to stand up before she could kick its skull in. Purple mist began weeping from its eye sockets as green and black energy appeared around its hand. It made a pushing gesture, forcing Trixie off her feet. She landed with a hard thud on the ground and plopped onto her back. Before she could stand up, however, the skeleton firmly gripped her shoulder and forehead. Trixie’s blue energy flowed out of her and into the skeleton’s hands where its color changed to a dark green color.
The room became increasingly warmer, but Trixie still felt a chill. She began to feel dizzy and lightheaded as spots filled her vision and she went completely blind for a few seconds as she felt the skeleton’s grasp release her. She collapsed onto her back where her vision returned and she stared up at the skeleton watching her closely. She was convinced this was her last moment alive as her vision faded, the last thing she saw was that skeleton keeping its eyes locked on her.